Reunion
by actingwithportals
Summary: Commission for Tumblr user well-the-jokes-on-you. They asked for a scenario where Cave didn't die and instead was frozen until a cure could be found, and where Caroline could be brought back from GLaDOS, and how a reunion between the two of them would go. I originally intended it to not be so angsty, but... that's how Caveline be.


Rebirth. Reawakening. The feeling of your head breaking through the water's surface and reemerging into the world above. Your eyes opening to a bright new world after living in the darkness of dreams for an eternity of night. It was like breathing for the first time again, rediscovering the sweet taste of oxygen in your lungs. It was like spending your entire life walking and discovering one day you could fly.

That's how Caroline felt in those first moments of consciousness. Nothing else registered in her mind; no name, no past, no pain, only the pleasure of a life renewed.

If only those precious moments could last forever.

It didn't take long for consciousness to sprout understanding, and with that understanding came the memories and the terror. Her mind being stripped away, put through a metaphorical blender, and poured into a machine.

The machine.

How much of that consciousness was hers? How much of it was merely strings of data and code? However pressing the questions, Caroline did not have time to ponder them for long. There was a new memory taking precedence, the memory that lead her here, to waking. To life.

Caroline's eyes shot open, light and information processing through her brain faster than any mechanized processor could react. Fluorescent lights shone over her head, bouncing off of white walls and creating purple pinpricks of color over her field of vision as her eyes adjusted. She was lying on something soft, a mattress, perhaps? There was a consistent beeping on her right, and with a slight turn of her head Caroline could ascertain it was the sounds of a heart monitor. Her heart.

She had a heart again.

"I was wondering when you'd finally wake up."

Caroline's head spun to her left, taking in a sight almost more surprising than her current physical state of being.

"Mr. Johnson," she mumbled, almost instinctively. He was sitting in a chair at the side of her bed, hands folded in his lap and one leg crossed over the other. His expression was one she had seen him wear many times. Confident, relaxed, almost smug. However, it wasn't his expression nor his posture that made Caroline pause in disbelief.

Her boss was supposed to be dead.

"Good, your memory seems to be intact, then," he confirmed, a self-assured grin spreading across his face. "I only hire the best of the best, after all."

"Where . . . are we?" Caroline asked, struggling to piece together the fragments of memories still bouncing around chaotically in her skull.

"Aperture, of course," her boss answered coolly. "Where else?"

Slowly, Caroline tried to push herself up into a seated position. Her head swam with vertigo, and her body swayed.

"Careful," Cave warned. "You've been out for a pretty long time."

"How?" Caroline asked, having a million questions on the tip of her tongue, but only managing a single word.

"I told you, I only hire the best of the best," Cave repeated, a chuckle escaping him. "Took longer than I'd like, but those lab boys really outdid themselves with this one. That Genetic Life-form and Disk Operating System project wasn't expected to be reversible, but here you are."

"And you?" Caroline asked. "How are you here?"

"I said I wouldn't go down so easily," Cave said, the corners of his mouth pulling up in a smirk. "No way in hell Cave Johnson is gonna be done in by moon rock poisoning."

"They found a cure," Caroline guessed. It wasn't a question.

"Just in time, too," Cave confirmed. "I would've hated to miss your reawakening."

The fog in Caroline's brain had begun to clear, and with that clarity came one singular thought.

"It hurt, you know," Caroline whispered.

Cave's smile faltered in confusion. "Pardon?"

"What they did to me," Caroline continued. "It hurt. Have you ever had your mind torn from your body and copied over into a vessel made of metal and wires? Have you ever felt everything that made you who you are become violently rewritten into nothing more than a program?" Caroline was no longer whispering, her voice steadily raising as her confusion turned to anger. "And after years of being poked and prodded and tampered with, suddenly finding that you've somehow become accustomed to it? Have you ever felt that degree of pain before, Mr. Johnson? Because I have!"

Her voice had risen to a shout, the beeping of her heart monitor growing erratic.

Cave was frowning now, any hint of self-satisfaction or pride no longer evident on his face. "We did it for science, Caroline," he told her. "I made you well aware of the costs when I asked you to be my assistant. You told me you would willingly give your life for it."

"I told you I was ready to die for the cost," Caroline snapped. "Not that I was ready to go to hell for it."

"I promised it wouldn't be permanent, and it wasn't," Cave reminded her, crossing his arms in irritation. "I promised we'd get a happy reunion, and I tried to make that happen. You think I wanted it to hurt? You think I wanted it to take so long? Science isn't easy, Caroline, but I bended its rules to make this day possible. I looked science in its metaphorical eye and told it to piss off. That's why we're here today. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Caroline bit her lip. He wasn't wrong. From day one, Caroline was ready to do whatever it took to learn all she could, to see every possible problem and find every possible solution. Do what she must because she could, that was her motto, wasn't it?

And yet.

"I would have rather we died for the cause," Caroline said softly. "Not lived past our expiration."

Cave's frown deepened. "I thought we agreed it didn't matter the outcome, as long as we sought it out together?"

"And exactly how far would we go before deciding it was enough?" Caroline questioned.

"As far as science demanded," Cave said, a hint of confidence returning to his tone. "That was always the plan, wasn't it?"

_As far as science demanded,_ Caroline thought. That was, indeed, always the plan. She expected it would demand her life someday, but she never expected it would demand her freedom as well.

Cave stood to his feet, turning away from her and heading towards the door of the small hospital room. His hand rested on the handle to the door, and he returned his gaze to Caroline once more.

"We do what we must because we can," he said. "And we do what we can because we must."

With that, Cave exited the room, leaving Caroline alone.


End file.
